Panda Bar massacre

The Panda Bar massacre[1] alternatively known as the Panda Café attack (Serbian: напад на кафић „Панда”)[2] was an attack on Serbian civilians in the city of Peć in north-western Kosovo,[a] on the night of 14–15 December 1998. Two masked men opened fire into a coffee bar,[3] killing six Serb boys, and wounding 15 others.[4][5]

Panda Bar massacre
LocationPeć, Kosovo, Yugoslavia
Date14 December 1998 (UTC+1)
TargetSerbian civilians
WeaponsAutomatic rifles
Deaths6
Injured15

The attack came at a time of heightened tensions, when on 14 December the Serbian police ambushed the KLA who were smuggling weapons and supplies from Albania.[6] The Panda Bar attack appeared as a reprisal,[6] and broke the brief cease-fire between the Albanian and Serbian forces during the Kosovo War.[7] The KLA was accused, but did not accept responsibility at the time.[6] Six Albanian young men were arrested and tortured at custody at the time, but acquitted in the trial.

Speculation that the crime may have been committed by the Serbian state security services had been put forward in the past, but the crime remained unsolved as no new evidence had come forward for a long time.[8] Many years after the incident, the Serbian government has officially acknowledged that it was perpetrated by agents of the Serbian Secret Service. Among Kosovo Albanians, the Panda Bar massacre is considered to have been used as a pretext for the attacks of the Serbian army and police against Albanian villages.[8]

Timeline

The attack on the Panda Bar came within hours of a border ambush in which at least 31 fighters from the Kosovo Liberation Army were killed by Serbian troops.[9] That evening, suspected KLA gunmen entered a Serb-owned café in Peć and opened fire on the patrons, killing six Serb youths.[10] The victims were a 14-year-old, a 16-year-old, three 17-year-olds and one 25-year-old.[b] Western diplomats suspected that the attack was carried out by the KLA in retribution for the ambush.[11] The KLA denied responsibility; journalist Tim Judah noted that some of the diplomats thought the attack might have been carried out by a rogue unit.[12]

The shooting appalled foreign emissaries, and at a meeting with Milošević the following day, Holbrooke condemned it as an act of terrorism and described the situation in Kosovo as "very grave". Milošević issued a separate statement accusing the international community of failing to prevent attacks on Serb civilians, stating: "The terrorist gangs have not ceased attacking the army, the police, and inhabitants of Kosovo."[13]

The attack led to an immediate crackdown on the Albanian-populated southern quarters of Peć – Kapešnica and Zatra.[14] The area was sealed off, and houses were searched systematically.[14] Media reports stated that Serbian police killed two Kosovo Albanians during the operation.[14] The OSCE later made a report on the event and its aftermath, calling it the Panda Bar incident.[15]

Six young Albanians were arrested and found guilty of the crime in the aftermath of the event. They were between the ages of 17 to 22. The six men were tortured and one of them confessed to the murder under torture. In the trial they were acquitted as no evidence existed about their involvement. They were convicted to one year in prison each for breaching public order, but were released a month later.[8][16] Since then, one of them has developed mental health problems which have deteriorated over time. Another one went to become a finance officer at the municipality of Peja.[8]

Investigation

After the massacre, six Albanian young men were rounded by Serbian troops and arrested, and tortured in custody.[8] They were all acquitted in a trial.[8]

An investigation was started in 2011.[17] The grave stones of the victims have been destroyed.[18]

On December 2013, Aleksandar Vučić (now President of Serbia) acknowledged that there is no evidence that murder was committed by Albanians.[19] The Serbian Organised Crime Prosecutor’s Office launched a new investigation in 2016 and reached the conclusion that the massacre was not perpetrated by Albanians.[8]

Many years after the incident, the Serbian government officially acknowledged that it was perpetrated by agents of the Serbian Secret Service.[20]

See also

Annotations
  1. ^
    Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Kosovo and the Republic of Serbia. The Republic of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence on 17 February 2008. Serbia continues to claim it as part of its own sovereign territory. The two governments began to normalise relations in 2013, as part of the 2013 Brussels Agreement. Kosovo is currently recognized as an independent state by 98 out of the 193 United Nations member states. In total, 113 UN member states recognized Kosovo at some point, of which 15 later withdrew their recognition.
  2. ^
    The victims were Ivan Obadović (14 years old), Vukota Gvozdenović (16), Svetislav Ristić (17), Zoran Stanojević (17), Dragan Trifović (17) and university student Ivan Radević (25).[18] Gvozdenović, Ristić, Stanojević and Trifović were highly graded students of the Sveti Sava gymnasium in Peć.[17] The father of Radević was a half year later kidnapped and murdered by Albanians.[17]

References
  1. Landis & Albert 2012, p. 356, Aertsen et al. 2013, p. 83
  2. NIN: nedeljne informativne novine. Politika. March 2007.
  3. Aertsen et al. 2013, p. 83.
  4. Holbrooke and Hill.
  5. Kosovo: the road to war Archived October 20, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  6. Bellamy 2002, p. 112.
  7. Landis & Albert 2012, p. 356.
  8. Rudic, Filip; Haxhiaj, Rexhepe (2018). "Kosovo's Panda Café Massacre Mystery Unsolved 20 Years On".
  9. "Serb murder in Kosovo condemned". BBC. December 18, 1998. Retrieved December 30, 2015.
  10. Judah 2002, p. 191.
  11. Guy Dinmore (December 15, 1998). "Kosovo Cease-fire Is Jeopardized By Killing Of 30 Rebels". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved August 9, 2015.
  12. Judah 2002, p. 192.
  13. "Grave differences over Kosovo". BBC. December 16, 1998. Retrieved August 9, 2015.
  14. "Human Rights in Kosovo: As Seen, As Told, 1999". OSCE report. OSCE. Archived from the original on 2014-10-15.
  15. "OSCE report" (PDF). OSCE. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-11-14. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  16. KTV Lajmet. KTV. 22 January 2014. Archived from the original on 22 January 2014. Retrieved 22 January 2014.
  17. Novosti; Tanjug; Blic.
  18. Politika 13 December 2008.
  19. "State killed journalist, says deputy PM". B92. 2013.
  20. Everts, Daan (2020). Peacekeeping in Albania and Kosovo: Conflict Response and International Intervention in the Western Balkans, 1997 - 2002. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 50. ISBN 978-1838604493. In mid-December six young Kosovo Serbs were killed, and about a dozen wounded, in the Panda bar in Peja/Pec. The murder caused outrage all around, with the KLA getting all the blame. Many years later, the Serbian government officially acknowledged that the murder had been perpetrated by agents of the Serbian Secret Service.

Sources
Books
Newspaper articles

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